Perseus Academic: Italy by Spencer DiScala

Reviews:

“This is simply the best history of modern Italy. Students regularly praise it in my course evaluations. Spencer Di Scala's prose is crisp, his scope comprehensive, his analysis lucid, and his judgment wise. The book's special strengths are political, social, and cultural history, international context, and a rich bibliographical essay for further studies. A masterful work by a master historian and teacher.”
—John Alcorn, Trinity College

“Spencer Di Scala’s book is a comprehensive, balanced, and accessible survey of three centuries of Italian history, placed in a larger European context. With helpful maps, pithy biographies and an unmatched bibliographical essay, it is perhaps the best introductory text for students and stimulating for scholars as well. From the Enlightenment to the phenomenon that is Silvio Berlusconi, updated to address Italy’s most pressing contemporary problems and paradoxes, it is an indispensable work.”
—Stanislao G. Pugliese, Hofstra University

“Spencer Di Scala's Italy: From Revolution to Republic, 1700 to the Present improves with every edition, with more portaits of representative Italians and by extending its scope well-into the twenty-first century. Well organized and elegantly written, it serves as an ideal introduction to the serious study of modern Italy.”
—Roy Palmer Domenico, University of Scranton

Praise for the previous edition:

This clearly written account of the last three centuries of Italian history includes coverage of the most recent developments that are changing the face of Italian society at the start of the twenty-first century. The coverage of Di Scala's text extends beyond politics. It effectively conveys the scope of the cultural and social transformations that make contemporary Italy a fascinating case study of the opportunities and pitfalls of rapid change. Di Scala's text generally accentuates the accomplishments, a welcome change from studies that treat Italian history as a series of 'failed revolutions.'
— Roland Sarti, Professor Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Spencer Di Scala's book is a comprehensive excursion through three centuries of Italian history from the end of the Renaissance to Berlusconi. The updated bibliographical essay— the only one of its kind in a general work— is an invaluable guide through the complexities of the historical literature on modern Italy. The third edition confirms the book's reputation as an indispensable text in the field.
— Nunzio Pernicone, Associate Professor of History, Drexel University

A long and fruitful career of teaching and research precedes the publication of this magisterial synthesis by one of our leading Italianists. His one-hundred-page-long bibliographical essay is the best thing of its kind in English, and the same can be said about the rest of the book. University students and general readers could have no more authoritative guide to the history of modern Italy than Spencer Di Scala.
— Richard Drake, University of Montana